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EXCHANGE 


THE 


IRISH  LAND  QUESTION. 


BY 


JAMES   CAIED. 


Be  just  and  fear  not." 


LONDON: 
LONGMANS,  GREEN,  READER,  AND  DYER. 


1869. 


Cb 


EXCHANCNI 


NOTE. 

THE  following  pages  are  offered,  in  an  impartial 
spirit,  as  a  contribution  towards  the  settlement 
of  the  Irish  Land  Question.  In  1849,  favoured 
by  the  introduction  of  the  late  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
I  visited  Ireland,  then  prostrate  from  the  famine, 
and  carefully  examined  the  agricultural  condition 
of  the  country.  In  Parliament  I  have  since  had 
many  opportunities,  both  in  the  House  and 
in  Committees,  of  considering  the  subject. 
And  during  the  present  year,  in  a  recent  visit 
to  Ireland,  I  traversed  a  large  part  of  that 
country,  embracing  portions  of  each  province,— from 
Dublin  to  Tralee  and  Sligo,  and  from  Cork  to 
Londonderry,— and  had  very  ample  opportunities 
of  discussing  the  question,  and  of  eliciting  the 
views  of  men  of  all  shades  of  opinion. 


JAMES  CAIRD. 


3,  ST.  JAMES'S  SQUARE, 
Oct.  25,  1869. 


THE  IRISH  LAND  QUESTION. 


IRELAND,  in  1869,  presents  a  strange  spectacle. 
The  landlord's  rents  are  well  paid,  the  tenant 
farmers  are  prosperous,  the  labourers  never  had 
higher  wages ;  yet  there  is  a  general  feeling  of 
uneasiness  and  discontent.  With  the  increasing 
value  of  their  property,  there  has  arisen  in  the 
minds  of  the  farmers  a  keener  desire  to  secure  it. 

Men  of  much  experience  and  knowledge,  Pro- 
testant and  Roman  Catholic,  have  expressed  to  me 
regret  that  the  decision  of  the  Land  question  could 
not  have  been  postponed  for  a  year,  until  the  country 
should  begin  to  feel  the  quieting  effect  of  the  settle- 
ment of  the  Church  question.  But  all  admitted  that 
this  had  now  become  impossible,  agitation  having 
carried  it  beyond  the  period  when  delay  would 


longer  be  listened  to.  The  Church  question,  im- 
portant though  it  was,  is  now  declared  to  be  quite 
secondary  to  that  of  the  Land.  The  townspeople 
sympathize  with  the  farmers  on  this  subject,  feel- 
ing that  the  prosperity  of  the  towns  is  altogether 
dependent  on  the  prosperity  of  the  land.  And 
although  a  great  part  of  the  tenantry  are  satisfied 
with  their  present  position  when  under  good  land- 
lords, of  whom  there  are  very  many  in  Ireland, 
yet  their  feelings,  as  a  body,  go  with  those  of  their 
own  class  who  are  not  so  fortunately  circumstanced. 
There  is  undoubtedly  a  universal  feeling  of  ex- 
pectation that  the  present  Government  will  now 
be  able  to  find  a  satisfactory  solution  of  the 
question. 

The  demand  which  the  farmers  and  their 
political  advisers  make,  is  "  fixity  of  tenure,"  a 
phrase  which  may  extend  to  a  substantial  transfer 
of  the  ultimate  right  of  property,  or  may  be  modified 
to  a  reasonable  security  against  precarious  posses- 
sion. The  demand,  extravagant  in  the  former 
sense,  is  sound  in  principle  to  this  extent, 
that  the  operations  of  agriculture,  except  where 
of  the  most  primitive  kind,  naturally  extend 
their  effects  beyond  a  single  year,  and  outlays 
made  by  the  farmer  in  cultivating  and  enrich- 
ing his  farm  cannot  be  recovered  in  the  first 
crop.  A  prudent  man,  without  some  security 
for  a  term  of  years,  will  not  make  such  outlays, 
but  will  content  himself  with  taking  from  the 


land,  year  by  year,  the  greatest  produce  it  can 
naturally  yield  at  the  least  cost.  A  downward 
course  of  deterioration  is  thus  promoted,  the  end 
of  which  is  poverty  to  all. 

There  are  three  modes  by  which  security  of 
possession  may  be  given  to  the  tenant — 1st. 
Fixity  of  tenure.  2nd.  Ulster  tenant  right.  3rd, 
Lease  for  a  term  of  years  under  a  mutual  contract. 
The  first  in  its  absolute  meaning  involves  a  policy 
of  exclusion,  directed,  for  the  benefit  of  the  present 
holder  and  his  successors,  not  against  the  landlord 
only,  but  against  all  who  might  hereafter  desire 
to  be  tenants.  It  would  take  from  the  land- 
lord, without  compensation,  a  portion  of  his  rights, 
and  by  excluding  the  influence  of  fair  and  moderate 
competition,  is  more  likely  to  stereotype  an  inferior 
system  of  husbandry  than  to  improve  it.  The 
second,  the  Ulster  tenant  right,  has  been,  on  the 
whole,  attended  with  a  larger  measure  of  success 
than  any  other  mode  of  tenure  hitherto  fairly  tried 
in  Ireland,  but  it  contains  within  itself  the  ele- 
ments of  future  disorder,  in  admitting  a  principle 
which  cannot  be  yielded  to  its  full  extent  with- 
out injury  to  the  landlord,  and  yet  if  wholly 
denied  would  defraud  the  tenant.  The  third 
mode,  a  lease  for  a  term  of  years,  attains  the 
security  necessary,  and  leaves  both  parties  free  at 
its  termination.  It  has  the  sanction  of  long  expe- 
rience in  every  civilized  country,  and  its  results  in 
Great  Britain  have  developed  the  fullest  capabili- 


8 

ties  of  the  soil,  and  the  most  profitable  employ- 
ment of  well-paid  labour.  But  its  adoption 
depends  on  the  joint  will  of  landlord  and  tenant. 
If  it  could  be  generally  introduced  in  Ireland, 
it  would  solve  many  difficulties.  The  anxious 
problem  is,  how  is  this  to  be  accomplished  ?  How 
can  the  State  contribute  towards  making  it  the 
obvious  and  direct,  as  it  is  the  true  and  ultimate 
interest  of  both  parties,  to  enter  voluntarily  into 
such  arrangements  as,  without  subverting  the  right 
of  property,  shall  give  adequate  security  and 
encouragement  to  the  occupying  tenant  ? 

The  Irish  people  were  formerly  familiar  with 
the  system  of  leases.  Up  to  the  time  of  Catholic 
emancipation  and  the  first  Reform  Bill  a  lease  for 
a  life  was  deemed  freehold,  and  none  but  free- 
holders had  the  political  franchise.  Tenants  at 
will  by  the  Reform  Bill  were  for  the  first 
time  admitted  to  the  franchise,  and  the  system 
of  leases,  so  far  as  political  influence  was  sub- 
served, was  no  longer  necessary.  Yearly  tenancy 
began,  and  permanent  improvements  except  in 
Ulster,  became  rare.  The  change  was  not  solely 
political,  for  the  evils  of  middlemen  and  sublet- 
ting under  the  system  of  leases  for  lives  largely 
contributed  to  it,  and  led  many  landlords  to  the 
adoption  of  the  opposite  extreme.  To  whatever 
extent,  however,  the  system  of  yearly  tenancy 
is  promoted  by  political  considerations  that  cause 
should  be  removed,  not  by  depriving  the  tenant  of 


his  political  rights,  but  by  enabling  him  to  exercise 
them  uncontrolled. 

The  landlord,  desirous  of  political  influence, 
will  then  have  himself  to  blame  if  he  does 
not  receive  the  political  support  of  his  tenants, 
and  the  tenants,  unharassed  by  the  fear  of  in- 
curring the  displeasure  of  their  landlord,  or  the 
censure  of  their  clergyman,  will  gain  the  indepen- 
dence and  act  with  the  spirit  of  freemen.  It  was 
stated  before  Mr.  Maguire's  Committee  in  1865 
that  no  farmer  with  a  lease  ever  left  the  country 
as  an  emigrant,  another  argument,  if  more  were 
needed,  against  every  political  or  other  arrange- 
ment which  discourages  the  principle  of  such  a  con- 
tract. 

The  advocates  of  "fixity  of  tenure"  seem  to 
forget  the  state  of  Ireland  only  twenty  years  ago. 
At  that  time  tenants  in  the  south  and  west  were 
fleeing  from  their  farms  and  the  liabilities  attach- 
ing to  them.  In  the  course  of  a  few  years  400,000 
mud  cabins  and  their  inhabitants  disappeared. 
Good  land  and  bad  were  for  a  time  alike  aban- 
doned. The  power  of  selling  their  interest  in  the 
farm  was  valueless  when  there  were  no  buyers. 
Even  within  the  present  decade,  in  the  bad  years 
1860,  61  and  62,  the  possession  of  farms  was  but 
little  coveted.  Then  followed  a  period  of  favour- 
able seasons,  better  crops,  and  advancing  prices. 
During  the  last  three  years  the  price  of  oats,  which 
comprise  five-sixths  of  the  corn  grown  in  Ireland, 


10 

has  been  very  remunerative.  This  was  stimulated 
by  the  great  decline  in  the  supply  of  corn  from 
America  during  the  civil  war.  But  these  circum- 
stances of  comparative  prosperity,  which  have 
restored  the  old  eagerness  for  the  possession  of 
land,  may  be  reversed.  A  change  of  seasons,  a  fall 
of  price,  or  a  recurrence  of  the  potato  disease, 
with  its  attendant  disasters,  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  must  be  anticipated.  In  such  a  change  of 
circumstances  fixity  of  tenure,  without  revision  of 
rent,  would  be  of  little  value  to  the  Irish  farmer. 
But  by  whom  is  such  revision  to  be  made  ?  Could 
the  State  undertake  to  regulate  the  letting  price  of 
land  any  more  than  the  price  of  other  commodities  ? 
How  could  it  execute  such  a  discretionary  duty 
without  evoking  universal  distrust  and  dissatisfac- 
tion ?  There  seems  to  be  only  one  answer.  The 
conflicting  interests  of  landlord  and  tenant  in 
the  rent  of  land  must,  as  with  all  other  com- 
modities, adjust  themselves  by  the  natural  laws  of 
demand  and  supply,  care  being  taken  to  remove 
every  stimulus  to  unnatural,  and  therefore  undue, 
competitioD,  and  every  principle  of  law  which 
operates  unequally  in  favour  of  the  landlord  against 
the  tenant. 

For  the  tenant-right  of  Ulster  there  is  much 
to  be  said.  It  has  grown  up  with  the  most 
prosperous  condition  of  agriculture  in  Ireland, 
partly  the  result  of  that  condition,  and  partly  its 
cause.  The  farmer  who  had  made  improvements 


11 

ac  iiis  own  cost  was  allowed  to  sell  those  improve- 
ments to  his  successor.  So  far  the  transaction 
was  advantageous  to  both,  and  in  no  way  inju- 
rious to  the  landlord.  But  by  degrees,  and  in 
consequence  of  the  competition  for  land  among 
farmers,  that  payment  for  improvements  has 
extended  to  a  payment  for  "  goodwill,"  for  some- 
thing which  the  out-going  tenant  had  no  right  to 
sell,  inasmuch  as  it  really  represents  either  the 
dormant  qualities  called  into  action  by  drainage  or 
other  improvements  of  a  permanent  character,  or 
the  natural  growth  in  the  letting  value  of  land, 
irrespective  of  improvement.  This  growth  arises 
from  the  land  being  of  fixed  extent,  while  the 
absolute  and  relative  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the 
United  Kingdom  increase  enormously  year  by  year. 
Its  general  existence  is  indisputable,  but  it  is 
extremely  difficult  to  be  distinguished  in  particular 
cases  from  the  growth  of  value  due  to  agricultural 
improvements  or  better  husbandry. 

Besides  the  evidence  afforded  by  the  aspect  of 
the  country,  the  statistics  of  Ireland  show  that 
Ulster  stands  first  in  the  quality  of  its  house 
accommodation  for  the  people,  highest  in  the  scale 
of  education,  and  richest  in  the  value  of  its  capital 
in  live  stock.  These  are  unquestionable  evidences 
of  comparative  prosperity.  They  are  not  attri- 
butable to  any  superiority  of  climate  or  soil ;  to 
some  degree  they  are  owing  to  difference  of  race 
and  habits  of  thought,  but  in  the  main  they  must 


12 

be  due  to  a  system  of  tenure  which  secured  to 
the  tenant  full  repayment  for  improvements  when 
from  any  cause  he  quitted  his  farm. 

The  abuse  of  the  system  arises  from  the  diffi- 
culty to  which  I  have  alluded  of  distinguishing 
that  which  is  really  the  right  of  the  tenant  from 
that  which  is  as  certainly  no  part  of  his  pro- 
perty. This  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  tenant 
right  brings  the  highest  price  under  a  "  good " 
landlord ;  that  is,  on  an  estate  known  to  be 
under-rented.  In  such  a  case,  the  landlord  has 
been  content  to  forego  a  portion  of  his  rights, 
that  his  tenantry  may  sit  at  easy  rents.  But, 
where  the  custom  of  selling  the  tenant  right  of 
possession  is  permitted,  the  landlord  finds  that  this 
margin  is  used  to  increase  the  selling  value  of  the 
tenant  right  itself,  and  that  the  successor  of  the 
man  to  whom  he  let  his  land  gets  no  benefit  from 
his  leniency,  but  the  reverse.  It  is  really  a 
revival  of  the  exploded  system  of  fines  for  re- 
newal of  leases,  and  it  is  a  fine  payable  to  a 
man  who  has  no  interest  in  the  permanent  welfare 
of  the  estate,  and  who  can  give  no  security  for  any 
period  of  duration.  Without  legal  security,  the 
in-coming  tenant,  relying  on  the  character  of  the 
landlord,  pays  down  a  sum  equal  to  a  fourth,  a 
third, — sometimes  even  a  half,  of  the  fee  simple 
value,  by  money  frequently  borrowed  at  an  exorbi- 
tant rate  of  interest,  and  leaving  himself  no  ade- 
quate means  for  the  profitable  cultivation  of  the 


38 

land.     Even  if  the  rent  for  a  time  is  not  increased, 
the  effect  to  the  tenant  is  the  same  as  an  increase, 
the  interest  he  has  to  pay  for  the  borrowed  money 
handed   to  his  predecessor  being  more  than  any 
advance  likely  to  have  been  exacted  by  his  land- 
lord.     Under   the   influence   of  these  increasing- 
prices  paid  by  one  tenant  to  another  for  tenant 
right,  the  margin  on  which  it  rests  is  gradually 
lost ;   the    landlord's    moderate   rent,   when  aug- 
mented by  the  interest  of  the  money  paid  for  the 
right,  becomes  equal  to  the  full  letting  value,  and 
the  enormous  amount  of  tenants'  capital  which, 
in  the  aggregate,  has  been  invested  in  Ulster,  is 
more  or  less  at  the  mercy  of  the  landlords.     That 
this   is  a  state  of  matters  felt   by  both   parties 
to  be  critical  and  dangerous,  cannot  be  doubted. 
The   tenants   fear  they   may  lose  some  of  their 
capital  by  any  legal  definition  of  the  right  they 
claim,   and   which   they   can   now   realise    under 
custom.      The   landlords   will   not,   possibly  dare 
not,  exact  the  full  letting  value  of  their  lands,  con- 
scious that  by  doing  so  they  must  confiscate  the 
larger  portion  of  their  tenants'  capital. 

We  seem  thus  shut  in  by  reason  and  experi- 
ence to  the  principle  of  the  third  mode  of  security 
of  possession,  that  arising  under  a  mutual  con- 
tract for  a  lease  of  a  limited  term  of  years. 
This  admits  of  the  greatest  degree  of  freedom 
on  both  sides.  It  has  resulted  in  the  highest 
development  of  agriculture  in  the  British  Islands. 


14 

Where  it  exists  on  fair  and  equal  terms  between 
landlord  and  tenant,  it  seems  the  most  natural 
relation  that  can  subsist  between  reasonable  and 
independent  members  of  the  same  community. 
Withdraw  from  the  landlord  any  existing  privi- 
lege he  possesses  under  the  law  of  distress  or 
hypothec  which  enables  him  unduly  to  encourage 
and  take  advantage  of  competition,  and  there  will 
be  an  end  of  unnatural  competition.  Competi- 
tion, when  fairly  exercised,  is  the  life-blood  of 
society.  By  it  the  ablest  men,  whether  by  bodily, 
mental,  or  moral  capacity,  or  all  combined,  obtain 
the  lead.  Through  them  progress  is  secured  in  a 
country,  and  the  men  best  fitted  for  the  duty  con- 
duct its  affairs  in  the  State,  the  county,  the 
workshop,  and  the  farm.  The  objection  to  leases, 
that  they  result  in  competition  and  advance  of 
rents,  is  no  more  tenable  in  the  case  of  farms  than 
in  that  of  shops,  or  trades,  or  professions. 

The  pressure  of  competition  in  Ireland  is  much 
complained  of,  and  a  demand  is  made  that  it 
should  be  restrained  by  the  appointment  of  a 
Government  Court  of  Valuation,  which  should 
periodically  fix  the  rent.  But,  in  dealing  with 
such  a  complaint,  we  must  fairly  consider  the 
true  state  of  the  facts.  With  this  object  I  have 
endeavoured  to  ascertain  the  progressive  increase 
of  land  rental  in  each  of  the  three  kingdoms 
during  recent  years.  The  comparison  with  Ireland 
cannot  be  exact,  inasmuch  as,  while  in  England 


15 

and  Scotland  the  annual  value  of  lands  is  furnished 
to  the  income  tax  assessors  by  the  owners  and 
occupiers,  it  is  obtained  in  Ireland  from  the  Poor 
Law  valuations.  We  may  probably  assume,  how- 
ever, that  these  valuations  afford  a  fair  test  of 
progressive  rental,  though  not  the  actual  rental, 
and,  if  so,  it  appears  that  the  land  rental  of 
England  in  a  period  of  the  last  seven  years  has 
risen  7  per  cent.,  that  of  Scotland  8  per  cent., 
while  that  of  Ireland  appears  in  the  same  time  to 
have  advanced  from  its  lowest  point  not  more  than 
5^  per  cent.  The  comparison  cannot  be  taken  for 
a  longer  period  than  seven  years,  as  the  year  1862 
was  the  first  in  which  the  value  of  lands  was  dis- 
tinguished in  the  income  tax  accounts  for  Ireland. 
But  these  figures  are  sufficient  to  show  that  at  the 
present  time  the  pressure  of  competition  in  aug- 
menting land  rent  has  not  operated  more  severely 
in  Ireland  than  in  the  sister  kingdoms. 

There  are  some  peculiarities  in  the  customary 
relations  between  landlord  and  tenant  in  Ireland 
as  compared  with  Great  Britain.  This  is  not  the 
place  to  enquire  into  their  causes.  They  exist, 
and  we  must  deal  with  them  as  they  are.  They 
have  two  main  features — the  first,  that  in  Ireland 
the  rule  has  been  to  leave  the  tenant  to  execute  at 
his  own  cost  all  the  permanent  improvements  on 
his  farm  ;  the  second,  that  the  mass  of  the  tenantry 
occupy  without  any  written  contract  with  their 
landlords.  In  the  absence  of  such  contract,  the 


16 

law    assumes    that    the    tenancy    is    terminable 
yearly. 

By  presumption  of  law,  buildings  and  other 
permanent  improvements  on  land,  by  whomsoever 
effected,  instantly  become  the  property  of  the  land- 
lord, and  I  understand  that  this  presumption 
cannot  be  altered,  even  by  the  clearest  evidence 
that  the  landlord,  as  is  too  often  the  case  in  Ire- 
land, contributed  no  part  of  the  cost.  I  think  this 
should  cease,  and  that,  on  eviction,  compensation 
should  be  given,  by  law,  for  the  unexhausted  value 
of  the  tenant's  improvements. 

Since  Arthur  Young's  time,  now  90  years  ago, 
the  rental  of  the  two  countries,  up  to  the  date  of 
the  potato  famine  in  1846,  appears  to  have  pro- 
gressed in  a  nearly  equal  ratio.  To  attain  this 
gradual  increase,  the  landowners  of  Great  Britain 
made  continuous  and  great  expenditure  upon  their 
property  in  buildings,  fences,  roads,  and  drainage, 
amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  probably  not  less 
than  one-third  of  the  fee  simple  value  of  their 
estates.  Their  present  rental  thus  embraces  a 
return  for  the  land  itself,  and  for  the  capital  like- 
wise spent  upon  it.  The  Irish  landlord,  favoured 
by  the  deceitful  prosperity  of  that  country  up  to 
1846,  in  a  rapidly  increasing  population,  and  a 
constantly  augmenting  competition  for  land  nnder 
potato  farming,  seems  to  have  drawn  an  equal 
return  from  his  property  without  being  called  on 
for  any  capital  beyond  the  mere  land  itself.  His 


17 

prosperity,  being  based  on  the  potato  husbandry 
collapsed  with  it  for  a  time.  But  in  the  last  five 
years  Irish  farmers  have  been  doing  well,  and  rents 
are  again  creeping  up  under  the  influence  of 
competition,  and  irrespective  of  landlords'  expendi- 
ture. 

This  great  distinction  in  the  case  of  the  land- 
lords of  Ireland  arid  Great  Britain  indicates  the 
fairness  of  a  distinctive  treatment,  and  the  in- 
justice of  a  law  which  assumes  alike  in  both 
cases  that  permanent  improvements  are  the  pro- 
perty of  the  landlord. 

There  is  an  equally  strong  objection  to  the 
principle  of  the  law  which  assumes  that  an  agricul- 
tural tenancy  is  terminable  yearly  unless  guarded 
by  written  contract. 

In  proper  culture  a  man  must  plough  deeply, 
clean  thoroughly,  and  manure  richly  with  his  green 
crop,  not  for  that  crop  alone,  but  for  the  corn  and 
grass  crops  which  are  to  follow  ;  in  fact  for  his 
whole  rotation,  which  may  extend  over  from  five  to 
six  or  eight  years,  according  to  the  soil,  climate,  and 
system  of  management.  If  he  is  suddenly  evicted 
after  that  expenditure  is  made,  and  before  he  has 
reaped  its  benefit  in  the  subsequent  crops,  he  is 
simply  robbed  by  law.  And  if  he  has  reason  to 
apprehend  that  his  course  of  management  may  be 
thus  cut  short,  his  only  remedy  is  to  stint  his  ex- 
penditure and  starve  the  land.  Thus  the  land,  the 
landlord,  and  the  country  are  all  in  the  worse  con- 


18 

dition,  and  so  will  be  the  tenant  himself  if  he  should 
continue  in  occupation.  All  this  comes  out  of  the 
false  theory  of  law,  that  the  natural  term  of  occu- 
pation is  a  single  year,  and  that  therefore  one  year 
must  be  presumed  conclusively  to  be  the  full 
duration  of  a  tenant's  holding,  unless  he  can  show 
written  evidence  to  the  contrary. 

No  man  enters  a  tillage  farm  with  the  expec- 
tation on  either  side  that  he  is  actually  to  occupy 
it  for  a  single  year  only.  But  in  Ireland  men 
seem  to  go  in  at  haphazard,  trusting,  perhaps, 
to  the  good  nature  of  the  landlord,  or,  without 
much  forethought  about  it,  doing  as  their  fathers 
have  done  before  them.  Then  the  law  chooses 
to  conclude  that  the  contract  is  necessarily  for 
a  year  only.  But  the  tenant  probably  does  not 
take  much  heed  of  that  till  the  day  comes  when 
the  law  is  put  in  action.  People  who  are  not 
practically  acquainted  with  the  processes  of 
agriculture  are  apt  to  think  uhis  bargain  was 
from  year  to  year,  and  he  has  got  it — how 
is  he  wronged  ?"  Yet  he  feels  that  he  is  sub- 
stantially wronged,  though  he  cannot  always 
explain  it  The  presumption  of  law  is  against 
him.  The  scales  of  justice  between  him  and  his 
landlord  are  unequal.  He  is  dispossessed.  His 
successor  enters  to  his  unexhausted  manures  and 
labour,  and  in  Ireland  the  unhappy  outcast,  finding 
the  law  against  him,  too  frequently  seeks  to  redress 
the  balance  by  violence.  Let  the  law  be  made 


19 

just   in  these  matters,  and   agrarian   crime  may 
disappear. 

With  these  observations  on  the  best  principle 
of  tenure,  I  proceed  to  remark  on  the  present  state 
of  agriculture  in  Ireland.  I  visited  the  worst  and 
most  distressed,  and  also  some  of  the  best,  dis- 
tricts of  that  country  in  1849,  immediately  after 
the  famine,  and  on  recently  traversing  nearly 
the  same  tract,  after  an  interval  of  twenty  years, 
I  cannot  say  that  its  agriculture  presented  much 
evidence  of  general  improvement.  The  people 
are  better  clothed,  better  housed,  and  better  fed, 
not  because  the  produce  of  the  ground  has  been 
materially  increased,  but  because  it  has  become 
of  more  value,  and  is  divided  among  two-thirds 
of  the  numbers  who  shared  it  then.  Most  of  the 
wet  land  is  still  undrained.  The  broken,  worn, 
and  gapped  fences  remain  too  much  as  before. 
Except  in  Ulster  and  the  eastern  seaboard  of  the 
country,  there  is  little  appearance  of  any  invest- 
ment of  capital  in  cultivation.  What  the  ground 
will  yield  from  year  to  year  at  the  least  cost 
of  time,  labour,  and  money,  is  taken  from  it.  The 
change  consequent  on  the  diminution  of  the  popu- 
lation has  been  followed  by  an  equivalent  decrease 
of  the  area  under  corn,  and  the  substitution  of 
live  stock  in  about  the  same  proportion.  The  pro- 
duce is  thus  more  secure,  and  obtained  at  less  cost? 
and  being  divided  among  a  smaller  number  of 

C  2 


20 

people,  they  have  each  a  larger  share.  But  there 
is  little  spirit  or  enterprise,  and  scarcely  a  sign  over 
a  large  portion  of  Ireland  of  that  immense  stride 
which  has  marked  the  progress  of  agriculture  in 
England  and  Scotland  during  the  same  period. 
The  Irish  farmer  is  proverbial  for  thrift,  even  to 
penury,  in  his  family  expenditure,  but  his  savings, 
instead  of  being  used  to  increase  the  productive- 
ness of  his  land,  are  locked  up  in  the  bank,  and 
help  to  swell  the  twenty  millions  of  deposits  in 
the  Irish  banks.  There  is  no  confidence  between 
classes  ;  people  are  living  from  hand  to  mouth, 
landlords  drawing  their  rents  with  the  least  outlay 
in  their  power,  and  tenants  tilling  their  land  after 
the  same  pattern.  To  this  general  rule  there  are, 
of  course,  many  exceptions.  There  are  landlords 
in  Ireland  as  exemplary  in  all  their  duties  to  their 
estates  as  in  England,  and  tenants  with  equal 
readiness  and  ability  to  adopt  and  carry  out  the 
most  improved  systems  of  husbandry.  But  the 
exceptions  only  bring  into  darker  contrast  the 
common  rule. 

Much  may  be  learned  by  contrast.  I  passed 
in  twelve  hours  from  Ireland  to  the  Lothians 
in  Scotland.  There  I  found  the  highest  farm- 
ing, the  largest  crops,  the  greatest  production 
of  corn  and  meat,  the  best  wages,  the  highest 
rents,  and  the  largest  profits.  In  both  coun- 
tries there  is  at  present  the  keenest  competi- 
tion for  farms ;  but  in  Scotland,  where  the 


21 

investment  of  tenants'  capital  is  very  considerable, 
the  only  legislation  for  which  the  farmer  asks  is  to 
obtain  the  control  of  "  ground  "  game,  and  to  be 
freed  from  the  undue  competition  encouraged  by 
the  law  of  hypothec.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive 
a  greater  contrast  than  is  presented  by  the  state 
of  agriculture  and  the  condition  of  the  agricultural 
class  in  the  two  countries,  which  a  century  ago 
were,  in  these  respects,  much  alike.  Leases  for 
lives,  no  outlay  by  the  landlord,  on  the  contrary, 
grassums,  or  fines  paid  to  him  for  renewal,  sublet- 
ting, and  subdivision  to  crofters,  strict  entails  tying 
up  the  land  in  the  hands  of  needy  owners,  then 
kept  Scotland  in  a  state  of  stagnation  and  chronic 
poverty.  About  1780,  Scotland  began  to  emanci- 
pate itself  by  releasing  proprietors  from  the  evil 
trammels  of  strict  entails  (from  the  last  remnant  of 
which  it  may  be  hoped  we  shall  soon  be  freed),  and 
by  "  enabling  laws  "  which  empowered  such  proprie- 
tors to  grant  leases  for  a  fixed  term  of  years,  and 
to  raise  money  by  a  charge  on  their  estates  for  the 
cost  of  buildings  and  other  permanent  improve- 
ments. The  principle  was  then  established,  and 
the  practice  became  universal,  that  the  duty  of  the 
landlord  was  to  provide  his  farms  with  buildings, 
and  other  permanent  improvements,  and  that  of 
the  tenant  to  find  the  capital  for  cultivation,  under 
the  security  of  a  lease  for  a  fixed  term  of  years. 
The  duration  of  the  lease,  19  or  21  years,  has  been 
found  in  practice  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  tenant. 


22 

and  to  promote  the  immediate  outlay  of  his  capital 
in  cultivation  that  he  may  the  longer  reap  its 
advantages.  And  a  lease  of  that  duration  does 
not  too  long  divorce  the  landlord  from  any  interest 
in  the  progressive  improvement  of  his  estate. 

The  entire  success  that  has  followed  this  clear 
definition  and  practice  of  the  relative  duties  of 
landlord,  and  tenant,  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil* 
convinces  me  that  in  the  development  of  this  prin- 
ciple lies  the  safest  course  for  land  legislation  in 
Ireland. 

The  present  time  is  very  favourable  for  attempt- 
ing a  change.  Comparatively  with  any  former 
period  both  landlords  and  tenants  in  Ireland  may 
be  said  to  be  prepared  for  it.  Compulsion  on  either 
side  is  not  necessary.  Legislation  should  be  in  the 
direction  of  removing  all  impediments  to  the  grant- 
ing of  leases,  or  effecting  improvements,  on  the 
part  of  landlords  under  settlement.  The  system  of 
leasing  for  fixed  terms  should  be  encouraged  by 
making  the  Government  loans  for  land  improvement 
conditional  upon  such  a  system.  If  the  Govern- 
ment for  the  general  welfare  advance  money  on 
favourable  terms  for  the  permanent  improvement 
of  land,  they  are  entitled  to  impose  such  conditions 
as  they  may  deem  necessary  to  secure  that  wel_ 
fare. 

Much  vexation  and  anxiety  is  often  very  reck- 
lessly inflicted  on  Irish  tenants  by  agents  giving 
them  notice  to  quit  for  some  frivolous  cause,  not 


23 

seriously  meant  to  be  acted  upon.  This  would  be 
corrected  by  exposure  and  the  consequent  action 
of  public  opinion.  I  would  suggest  that  no  notice 
of  eviction  should  be  legal  unless  published  in  the 
Dublin  Gazette,  or  some  newspapers  in  general 
circulation. 

The  changes  which  I  would  venture  to  recom- 
mend for  the  consideration  of  Government  would 
be  these  : — 

1.  Presumption   of  law  as   to   buildings    and 

other  permanent  improvements  to  be  altered. 
— Tenant,  on  eviction,  to  be  entitled  to 
compensation  at  their  value  for  all  such  as 
have  been  made  by  him,  Landlord  to  be 
freed  from  all  claim  on  granting  lease  of 
adequate  duration^  at  present  rent. 

2.  A  tenant  holding  without  written  lease  to 
be  secured  in  possession  by  presumption  of 
law  (except  for  failure  to  pay  rent)  for  an 
equitable  term,  say  five  years,  sufficient  to 
recoup   the    expenditure    necessary   to    a 
proper  system  of  cultivation. 

3.  Encouragement  to  be  given  to  the  system  of 

leases  for  a  fixed  term,  by  the  Government 
loans  for  land  improvement  being  made 
conditional  on  leases  of  not  less  than 
twenty  years  being  given  to  tenant. 

4.  Tenants   for   life   and   trustees   to   be   em- 

powered to  grant  farm  leases,  and  charge 


the  fee  simple  with  compensation  for  im- 
provements. 

5.  Equitable    claims   already   existing    under 

Ulster  Tenant  Bight,  to  be  recognized  in 
law.  But,  where  it  is  thought  by  both 
parties  desirable  to  compensate  and  extin- 
guish them,  the  extent  and  equitable  value 
of  the  right  to  be  ascertained,  and  compen- 
sated by  the  landlord,  either  by  giving  the 
tenants  a  lease  of  adequate  duration,  on 
terms  agreed  between  them,  or  by  paying  the 
value  of  the  right,  for  which  latter  purpose 
landlords  to  be  empowered  to  take  Govern- 
ment loans,  to  be  charged  on  their  estates 
in  the  same  way  as  land  improvement 
loans.  These  loans  to  be  limited  to  a  fixed 
sum  yearly. 

6.  In  all  cases  of  dispute,  whether  in  regard  to 

the  value  of  existing  improvements,  and  by 
whom  executed,  or  the  nature  and  value  of 
tenant  right,  power  of  reference  by  either 
party  to  some  competent  court,  or  special 
commission,  whose  decision  to  be  final. 

7.  No  notice  of  eviction  to  be  legal  unless  pub- 

lished at  the  proper  time  in  such  news- 
papers as  the  special  court  or  commission 
shall  from  time  to  time  appoint. 

These  proposals,  in   addition  to  Mr.   Bright's 
plan  of  giving  Government  assistance  to  tenants 


25 


wishing  to  buy  their  farms  from  owners  willing  to 
sell,  seem  to  me  to  embrace  the  main  conditions 
required  to  enable  the  Irish  people  to  work  out  for 
themselves  the  agricultural  prosperity  of  their 
country.  A  few  sentences  will  explain  their  pro- 
bable operation. 

In  all  cases  where  the  tenant,  prior  to   this 
time,    has    made    permanent    improvements,    he 
will  be  entitled  to  receive  their  value  on  eviction, 
or  have  the  right   to  continue  for  a  term  which 
may  fairly  be  deemed  sufficient  to  reimburse  him. 
The  landlord  will  not  be  obliged  to  pay  cash  for 
the  tenant's  improvements,  except  as  a  consequence 
of  his  own  act  in  evicting  a  tenant.    Small  tenants, 
who  may  desire  to  realise  their  outlay,  will  naturally 
be  permitted  to  sell  to  their  richer  neighbours  the 
right  of  lease  of  their  little  farms,  which  will  be 
generally  deemed  by  the  latter  a  valuable  acquisi- 
tion.    This  will  gradually  lead  to  the  absorption  of 
the  smallest  farms,  for  as  labour  rises  in  value  it 
will  operate  both  as  a  temptation  to   the  small 
farmer  to   hire  himself  to    others,    and   make   it 
difficult  or  impossible  for  him  to  obtain  additional 
labour  when  he  needs  it   on  his  own  land.     On 
holdings  too  small  to  keep  live  stock,  the  general 
experience  shows  that  there  can  be  nothing  but 
continuous  poverty,  and  the  pressure  is  increased 
when  the  family  is  young,  as  all  help  must  be  hired 
and  paid  for.     When  the  family  is  able  to  help 
their  father,  the  struggle  is  less  severe ;  but  that 


26 

is  only  because  the  labour  of  the  father  and  his 
sons  is  less  costly  in  money  than  hired  labour.  The 
condition  of  a  man  and  his  family  of  grown  up 
sons,  on  three  or  four  acres  of  poor  land,  for  such 
people  very  rarely  get  good  land,  is  that  of  persons 
who  unfortunately  content  themselves  with  the 
poorest  food,  even  in  good  seasons,  and  in  bad  years 
suffer  great  privation. 

By  the  second  proposal,  it  is  intended  to  meet 
the  case  not  of  outlays  of  a  permanent  character, 
which  are  provided  for  under  clauses  1  and  5,  but 
for  those  of  ordinary  good  farming. 

Under  these  proposals,  as  a  whole,  the  land- 
lord will  receive  capital  for  the  permanent 
improvement  of  his  property  on  the  most  favour- 
able Government  terms,  but  with  the  condition 
that  the  tenant  shall  obtain  the  security  of  a 
lease  for  a  term  of  years,  sufficient  to  call  forth 
his  full  energies  in  the  cultivation  of  the  land, 
while  the  tenant's  capital,  being  set  free  from  the 
cost  of  improvements,  will  be  wholly  available  for 
developing  the  capabilities  of  the  soil.  Many 
landlords  and  tenants  in  Ireland  may  deem  the 
term  too  short,  and,  if  so,  it  will  be  in  their  joint 
power  to  lengthen  it. 

With  regard  to  Ulster  tenant-right,  an  oppor- 
tunity will  be  given  to  those  who  are  dissatisfied 
with  their  present  uncertain  position  to  place  them- 
selves in  a  condition  of  safety  ;  whilst  those,  again, 
who  prefer  to  remain  under  the  existing  and  re- 


27 

cognized  custom  will  not  be  interfered  with.      To 
this  part  of  the  plan  I  attribute  great  importance. 

Vexatious  notices  of  eviction  will  probably 
receive  a  wholesome  check  by  the  publicity  which 
would  be  given  through  advertisement,  and  the 
anxiety  caused  to  many  a  poor  farmer  by  thought- 
less or  reckless  agents  would  be  stopped. 

To  the  proposal  of  Mr.  Bright,  I  attach  very 
great  value.     It  will  be  very  heartily  received  by 
the  Irish  farmers  themselves,  numbers  of  whom,  in 
all  parts  of  the  country,  will  be  found  well  qualified 
to   enter   upon   it.      The    presence    of  an  inde- 
pendent and  intelligent  resident  middle  class,  a 
connecting  link  between  the  great  landowner  and 
the  farmer,  is  much  wanted  in  Ireland.     The  ad- 
vantage of  the   change    to  the  farmer,  and    the 
facility   with   which  it  is   proposed   to  be   made, 
are  so  obvious  that  the  difficulty  will  be  to  deter- 
mine where   to  stop,   and   who  are   the   persons 
to  be  selected.     If  Ulster  farmers  have  hitherto 
found  it  profitable  to  pay  a  fourth  or  a  third  of 
the  fee  simple  value  for  the  mere  right  of  occu- 
pancy, how  much  more  gladly  will  they  enter  into 
an  arrangement  which,  in  35  years,  would  make 
them  the  owners  of  their  farms,  at  an  annual  charge 
not  much  greater  than  they  are  paying  for  their 
present  uncertain  tenure !     For  example,  a  tenant- 
right  farmer  has  a  farm  of  40  acres,  the  market 
value  of  which  is  £30  an  acre  =  £1,200.    This  will 
yield  in  rent  at  the  ordinary  rate  of  purchase  in 


28 

Ireland,  4  per  cent £48 

Instead  of  this,  he  will  pay  to  the  Govern- 
ment, or  to  those  holding  their  guaranteed 
land  debentures,  5  per  cent,  for  35  years  60 

Which  is  an  addition  annually  of £12 

But  he  will  have  a  claim  for  his  tenant-right, 
which,  if  equitably  arranged  between  him  and  the 
owner,  will  more  than  clear  off  this  annual  balance, 
and  leave  him  a  positive  gainer  from  the  first  by 
the  change. 

The  Irish  farmers  will  not  be  long  in  discovering 
this  advantage,  and  will  naturally  object  to  its 
limitation  to  single  estates,  and  to  individuals 
in  particular  localities.  They  will  claim  an 
equal  participation  in  the  imperial  boon,  and 
argue  with  great  fairness  that  if  the  principle  is 
good  on  a  small  scale,  it  will  be  all  the  more  bene- 
ficial by  being  offered  to  every  individual  in  any 
part  of  the  country  who  can  produce  the  requisite 
means  to  fulfil  its  conditions. 

The  available  capital  in  the  hands  of  Irish 
farmers  we  may  assume,  for  illustration,  at  30 
millions,  viz.,  1 5  millions  of  deposits  in  the  banks, 
and  15  millions  invested  in  Ulster  tenant-right. 
This  sum,  if  paid  down  as  a  deposit  at  the  rate  of 
one-third  of  the  price,  would  represent  a  purchasing 
power  of  90  millions'  worth  of  land,  which  is  more 
than  one-fourth  of  the  whole  agricultural  landed 
property  of  Ireland.  If  spread  over  30  years  this 


29 

change  might  be  accomplished  by  an  annual 
Government  guarantee  of  two  millions  sterling, 
which  would  be  continually  under  a  course  of  re- 
payment ;  and,  suppose  we  take  the  farms  at  an 
average  cost  of  £1,500  each,  there  would  be  a  re- 
settlement of  2,000  resident  small  proprietors  every 
year,  and  of  60,000  such  landowners  at  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  process. 

The  security  of  a  deposit  of  one-third  of  the 
price  would  ensure  a  body  of  substantial  yeo- 
men, who  would  feel  that  every  half  yearly  pay- 
ment they  made,  in  reduction  of  their  debt,  was 
better  than  a  deposit  in  the  bank,  and  each  pay- 
ment would  at  once  increase  the  security  of  the 
Government,  and  the  hold  of  the  purchaser  on  the 
land.  It  would  be,  and  would  be  felt  to  be,  quite 
a  different  thing  from  a  payment  of  rent. 

As  the  Government  aid  would  be  given  for  a 
special  purpose  of  State  policy,  there  should  be 
conditions  annexed  to  it  to  prevent  its  being  jobbed 
or  abused.  One  loan  only  would  be  allowed  to  the 
same  individual,  residence  on  the  farm  should  be 
made  a  condition,  and  no  transfer  or  subdivision 
be  permitted  until  it  passed  out  of  the  control  of 
the  Government  by  the  final  payment  of  the  price, 
except  in  case  of  death,  and  then  with  the  condition 
that  the  purchaser  should  fulfil  the  condition  of 
residence. 

Many  landowners  might  be  willing  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  opportunity  to  sell  portions  of 


30 


their  property  and  be  thus  enabled  to  do  more  justice 
to  the  remainder,  while  they  themselves  would  re- 
main in  the  country  as  resident  proprietors. 

This,  110  doubt,  contemplates  a  large  and  com- 
plicated arrangement,  subject  to  many  occasions  of 
miscarriage,  and  to  be  undertaken  by  the  Govern- 
ment only  as  a  State  necessity.  But  by  the 
gradual  settlement  over  Ireland  of  a  numerous 
and  industrious  class  of  small  landowners,  whose 
interests  were  identified  with  those  of  a  settled 
Government,  all  the  risk  and  trouble  would  be 
amply  compensated  to  the  State. 

If  it  should  not  be  thought  prudent  to  enter 
at  once  upon  so  general  a  scale  of  operations, 
the  more  limited  of  the  plans  sketched  out  by 
Mr.  Bright  might  be  at  first  undertaken.  The 
information  obtained  by  me  in  various  parts  of 
Ireland  leaves  no  doubt  on  my  mind  both  that 
suitable  estates  would  be  offered  for  sale  for  this 
object,  and  that  fit  men  would  be  found  to  pur- 
chase their  farms  through  the  aid  of  the  Govern- 
ment. 

But  any  treatment  of  the  Irish  Land  question 
which  should  omit  reference  to  the  very  origin  of 
all  the  difficulty  would  be  indeed  incomplete.  For 
the  evil  consequences  of  entails  and  settlements, 
and  the  law  of  intestacy  as  affecting  land,  meet 
the  traveller  at  every  step  of  his  enquiry.  They 
have  grown  into  greater  magnitude,  and  been  pro- 


31 

ductive  of  more  disastrous  results  in  Ireland  than 
in  the  sister  kingdoms,  and  therefore  call  for  a  more 
immediate  remedy.  But  the  principle  is  the  same 
in  both,  which,  taking  no  heed  of  the  constant 
changes  and  progress  of  the  people,  permits  the 
will  of  a  man  long  dead  to  tie  up  and  incapacitate 
the  owner  in  possession  from  acting  with  freedom 
in  the  management  or  disposal  of  his  property. 
Land  legislation  in  Ireland  up  to  this  time  has  been 
a  continuous  effort  to  lighten  by  degrees  this 
intolerable  burden  by  some  attempt  to  shift  and 
ease  it.  There  can  be  no  permanent  or  satisfactory 
settlement  of  the  Land  question  until  these  laws 
are  boldly  grappled  with,  and  whatever  change  in 
them  is  deemed  good  for  Ireland  will  be  equally 
beneficial  for  England  and  Scotland.  No  entail  or 
settlement  of  land  should  be  permitted  beyond 
lives  in  being,  and  all  property,  whether  real  or 
personal,  should  be  placed  on  the  same  footing  of 
equal  distribution  in  case  of  intestacy.  The  law 
ought  not  to  deal  unfairly..  It  should  leave  to 
individuals  the  responsibility,  if  they  think  fit,  of 
allotting  their  property  unequally.  The  aggrega- 
tion of  great  estates  in  the  hands  of  one  man 
ought  not  to  be  encouraged  by  law.  It  takes 
place — and  is  likely  so  to  continue — in  the  natural 
course  of  events  with  sufficient  rapidity. 

Consequences  of  vast  importance  are  involved 
in   the   wise   settlement  of  this  question.      The 


32 

peace  of  Ireland,  and  the  strength  of  a  really 
united  kingdom  may  be  gained  and  consolidated. 
Rules  of  law,  which  in  quiet  times  have  been  ad- 
mitted without  question,  must  now  be  subjected 
to  the  test  of  reason  and  justice.  Imperial  aid 
must  be  prudently  extended  to  remedy  evils  which 
have  grown  up  under  circumstances  peculiar  to  the 
country  and  the  state  of  society.  But  this  may 
all  be  done  without  trenching  on  sound  economical 
principles,  or  infringing  the  just  rights  of  property. 


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